Why did you choose to write this particular book?
I regularly drive long distances and have a great deal of time to think. One morning, as I was headed to an appointment, the opening lines from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities scrolled through my mind unexpectedly: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
As I meditated on those powerful words in terms of the present condition of our fallen world, a fascinating thought popped into my head. What would happen if my wife and I were on a commercial airliner that crashed within a few minutes of takeoff killing everyone on board—except us! We awaken exactly 24 hours later, at home, in our bed, dressed in the same clothes we’d worn to the airport. How would we explain what happened to us?
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
Finding a way to successfully integrate multiple points of view from my various key characters. I started out with only two primary characters, Ethan Freeman and Sam Weaver. The other characters were supposed to be supporting actors and actress. Well, a funny thing happened along the way to the final cut. My supporting characters took on fascinating lives of their own. They also began to take over my story!
I found myself inundated with demands from them to give each of them more screen time. Not to mention, I fell in love with every one of them. It was very hard to say no. I knew I was treading on thin ice, not to mention breaking a number of key writing “rules,” but they were relentless. I struggled to keep them in their place until I decided that the best way was to try and mimic stylistically what Tolkien did with his characters.
Not surprisingly, it was a daunting task. The jury is still out on whether or not I even
came close to achieving my goal. In my own mind, I know I have a long way to go as a writer before I can even think about being mentioned in the same breath as Tolkien, but it’s not a bad goal to set.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Most of us, sadly, see the world three-dimensionally. But, as Rod Serling, the creator of The Twilight Zone was fond of saying: There is another dimension–a fourth dimension. A dimension not of sight or sound, or taste or touch, or hearing, but one that overlays the one we accept as the “real” world. A parallel universe layered over the terrestrial realm like a gossamer veil. In order to “see” into this realm and interact with it we must use gifts given to us by God that transcend our fleshly bodies—and our souls.
The realm of Spirit.
I’m inspired by God to write about this realm and explore the consequences of ignoring, denigrating, or misrepresenting its power to impact our lives for all eternity. There is a quote from one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament, Hosea, in which God says: My people perish for lack of knowledge. People perish every day because they are ignorant of the things of the spirit and live only in the dimension of what their five senses tell them is real. We were created to achieve far more than most of us realize. We seek answers to our questions from an intellectual perspective, believing the disciplines of science, psychology, sociology, law, etc. can provide them. While they can, in measure, we should not neglect to ask the One who created those disciplines, and everything else. He has ALL the answers and gives them freely to us of we simply knock at His door and keep on knocking until He responds.
Ethan Freeman, ex-Special Forces Ranger, wakes up to discover he is the sole survivor of a fiery commercial airline crash that killed his entire family. His nightmare is only beginning when he becomes the FBI’s prime suspect. Only Ethan knows he’s not a cold-hearted murderer, but he has no idea what happened to him–and why he alone survived.
He finds an unlikely ally in Sam Weaver, the NTSB Chief Investigator. An ex-military pilot, Sam senses Ethan is innocent. She tries to remain dispassionate in her investigation of the crash even as she finds herself attracted to the man who may be America=s worst homegrown mass-murderer.
Neither Ethan nor Sam realize that shadowy spiritual forces are at work which will alter their lives forever.
A monstrous evil, imprisoned since the time of the Pharaohs, has been released by The Nine, a sinister group of powerful men and women who believe they are the direct descendants of the Anunnaki, ancient Sumerian gods. The demon they have unleashed intends to free The Destroyer from The Abyss, the angelic prison referred to in the Book of Revelation, and unleash a worldwide reign of terror and annihilation.
Facing impossible odds, time is running out for Ethan and all of humanity as he is drawn into an ever-deeper conspiracy–millennia in the making–and learns that he is the key to stopping The Nine. Will he overcome his deepest fears and find reserves of strength he never knew he had as he confronts pure evil in order to save himself and an unsuspecting world?
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Genre – Christian Thriller, Fantasy, Adventure
Rating – PG-13
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